The usage of microwave ovens has grown tremendously in recent years and continues to increase. Associated with this growth in microwave oven usage has been a similar growth in the demand for microwaveable prepared foods. However, when suppliers of microwaveable prepared foods seek to introduce different food products, they are often faced with the problem of how to compensate for the difference in effect produced during heating of foods in a microwave oven, in comparison to heating in a conventional oven. Among these problems, is the common complaint of consumers to the effect that food cooked by microwave energy lacks the desired degree of brownness or crispness that foods, particularly those involving bread products such as pizzas and garlic bread, have when cooked in a conventional oven. To this end, various specialized packages have been developed which are designed to achieve microwave browning or crisping of food contained therein. However, many such specially developed packages are not adaptable to foods which, during heating have grease or vapor driven out of them or which become soggy in nature. Furthermore, specialized packages that have been designed to overcome some of these problems are often costly to produce.
One example of such specialized packaging is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,757 to Turpin et al. This patent discloses a carton of microwave heating of pizza including an interactive layer which converts microwave energy to heat for browning the pizza crust and a spacer element for elevating the interactive layer above the bottom wall of the carton. Due to the specialized configuration of the carton assembly, excessive cost and size may result from utilization of this design, and, moreover, because this carton has only a single planar panel of interactive material it does not provide an effective means for microwave heating of foods that are relatively thick or which do not provide a single relatively flat surface requiring crisping or browning.
Microwave packages utilizing interactive layers are also known which require some form of manipulation prior to use, such as the package disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,010 to Bohrer and the package assembly disclosed in Brown et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,555,605. However, even though the packaging arrangements disclosed in these patents are extremely well suited for the microwave heating of certain types of food, such as popcorn in the case of the Bohrer package and Neopolitan (thin crust) pizza in the case of the Brown et al package assembly, these arrangements do not deal with the problems associated with microwave cooking of other types of foods, particularly those involving relatively thick bread crusts such as French bread type pizza and garlic bread, due to the planar nature of the support surface on which the interactive layer is provided for contact with a food item.
Outside of the field of packages for microwave heating of foods, it has been very conventional to provide paperboard cartons with removable food holding trays positioned therein. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,617,577 to Tardiff discloses a combination package having an outer carton within which a tart carrying tray is received for the purpose of holding ice cream tarts in place within the carton in fixed spaced relation to each other as well as the interior walls of the carton. To this end, the tray is formed, preferably from a single blank that has been suitably cut and scored to provide a base panel and side panels joined to the base by suitable parallel score lines. Furthermore, pairs of oppositely disposed cutouts or openings are formed in the side panels, which cooperate with each other in supporting the tarts. While such package arrangements are useful for their disclosed purposes, there has been no suggestion as to the possible use of such carton designs for microwave cooking and as a result, no suggestion as to how a microwave cooking package assembly, particularly one designed for producing a crisping or browning effect, might be derived.